Financial Accessibility: Stop Taking the Burden On Yourself, 3 Ways to Support Your Clients

When it comes to financial accessibility, too often therapists feel like they have to choose between either being a well-compensated private pay therapist, OR a caring and compassionate therapist.

The reality is we can be caring, compassionate, AND fairly compensated therapists! In this post I’ll outline three ways that you can help clients help themselves when it comes to making private pay therapy financially accessible for them.

1. Help them understand what benefits they already have access to on their existing insurance plan.

Just because you don’t take insurance doesn’t mean your clients can’t receive therapy reimbursement from their insurance company. The majority of plans have “Out of Network” benefits which means clients can receive 50-80% back on therapy costs without involving you as the therapist.

Most clients don’t even realize they have these benefits. You can help them check their benefits using an instant benefits calculator. There are a few out there. My favorite one is Mentaya’s. it is really easy to use and can be embedded into your website or psychology today profile.

How it works: You just enter the info on your client’s insurance card (or have them enter it in themselves) and it spits out their specific deductible balance and the amount they can expect to be reimbursed for therapy). This info is the exact same info they would get if they called up their insurance company and is based on their specific insurance plans and how many claims they have already submitted.

Normally its $29/month but you can try it free with this link.

2. Provide helpful tips around open enrollment

• November is a great time to let clients know that open enrollment is a great time for them to select a plan that gets them reimbursed for therapy.
• If clients interested they should look for a ****plan that includes “out-of-network” benefits.
• PPOs offered by your employer are a great place to start and definitely avoid HMO and EPO plans.

Here’s a script you could use by email or in person:

I know that therapy is a serious commitment of both your time and money (and I want to commend you for you incredible work!)

Since open enrollment is starting, I wanted to check that you’re aware of the resources out there to make therapy more affordable…

Though I don’t personally work with insurance, there are a lot of plans out there that can get you reimbursed over 50% of therapy costs.

*If you’re interested you should look for a ***plan that includes “out-of-network” benefits.

• PPOs offered by your employer are a great place to start and definitely avoid HMO and EPO plans.

It doesn’t affect me either way. I just wanted to make sure you have access to resources.

3. Warn clients about insurance companies “timely filing limits”

What is the timely filing limit:

• The timely filing limit is a deadline set by an insurance company for submitting a claim after the session date.
• If a client fails to file the claim within the specified timeframe, the insurance company can reject it.
• Filing limits vary widely but they are generally between 90 days to 1 year

Why it’s important to warn clients about this:

Clients dread dealing with insurance companies (and who can blame them?!). They put off submitting claims, thinking they have the whole year to catch up when their deadline has already passed!

I like to warn my clients regarding “timely filing limits” and also give them a referral to a third party company that can submit claims on their behalf without involving me. That way clients don’t have to keep track of which claims they filed, their deadlines or troubleshooting with insurance companies. My favorite company to work with in this space is Mentaya. They handle all the hassle. I’ve found that my neurodivergent clients in particular appreciate this service.

Readers of my blog can access Mentaya for 1 month free using this link.

Script for warning clients about timely filing limit

Hi (client’s name),

With the end of the year approaching, I wanted to acknowledge the incredible work you’ve done. I know it is a significant investment of both your time and money.

I also wanted to pass along an important PSA that could help you recoup some therapy costs:

As you know, I myself do not take insurance but you may be eligible for over 50% back on therapy costs using your insurance’s “out of network benefits”.

Every plan has what’s called a “timely filing limit”, which is a deadline set by an insurance company for submitting a claim after the session date. If you pass that deadline, you will no longer be eligible for reimbursement.

If you were planning to submit superbills from our sessions this year, this would be a great time to do so.

If you are too busy and dealing with insurance paperwork is not something you have capacity for right now, you can also use a service I partner with called Mentaya. They can take care of your backdated claims and automatically file claims on your behalf after each session.

If you’re interested, email [email protected].

Note: Mentaya has a 5% processing fee per claim, and they have historically recouped, on average, 62% of session costs for clients. As your therapist I do not benefit one way or another if you chose to use them. It is just a service I offer clients to make therapy more accessible.

Sincerely,

(Therapist Name)

Readers of my blog can access Mentaya’s benefits calculator for 1 month free using this link.